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WVU v. Kansas State: Loosen up a little bit

January 18, 2014 by Mike Casazza
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You are looking live at the pre-game stretch at Bramlage Coliseum, also known as the Octagon of Doom. Kansas State is 9-1 at home this season and, quite curiously, lost in the season opener to Northern Colorado. It’s not impossible today for West Virginia, which is 2-0 on the road in Big 12 play. Only Kansas can say that!

Sometimes these little pre-game essays are difficult and sometimes they write themselves. Today is the latter: The Mountaineers rely quite a bit on the 3-point line. Eron Harris is struggling. WVU missed 15 straight 3s while falling down at home by 14 points between makes against Texas Monday. The Mountaineers finished 4-for-25 in suffering their worst loss of the season.

And then there are the Wildcats, who might have the best defense in the Big 12. Bob Huggins said Thursday that one reason Kansas State (hereafter referred to as KSU) leads the conference in scoring defense is because its offense is deliberate and plays fewer possessions than most others.

Indeed, the Wildcats play just 68.7 possessions per 40 minutes. Not quite glacial, but not quite, say, WVU, right? Well, the Mountaineers, who we say and think move faster and run and take quick shots, average 69.2 possessions per 40 minutes.

The pace thing is a valid argument, but KSU also leads the Big 12 in 3-point percentage defense and is second in field-goal percentage defense. It’s classic Bruce Weber. The Wildcats back off the perimeter and close driving lanes and shut down cutters for passes and passes for cutters. They flash out to the perimeter when someone catches it there.

WVU has to shoot open jumpers when it has open jumpers, which didn’t happen against Texas. Pump fakes from 20 feet are bad things today.

And it wouldn’t hurt the Mountaineers to make more than they miss, too.

Let’s make this blog post one not to miss, yes?

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Eron Harris is feeling it

January 17, 2014 by Mike Casazza

Eron Harris is in a bad place right now. He just had the worst 3-point performance of his West Virginia career and, for a change, he’s acting like he’s in trouble. He’s shot it poorly six times in the last seven games — and the exception was his flu game at TCU, where he seemed fine during and after it.

Bob Huggins, who has sustained faith in Harris to play himself out of a hole, said Harris hasn’t shot it well in practice, either. As you can see above, that 0-for-7 thing Monday has him acting and thinking a little out of character.

“I missed shot after shot after shot after shot,” Harris said. “I never got going. It’s the most frustrating things. Two years ago, I probably would have started crying in the game and told the coach, ‘Take me out of the game. I don’t want to go back in.'”

Know where he was two years ago?

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Just about that time

January 16, 2014 by Mike Casazza

Time for our annual reminder: Mike Carey is really good and probably really underappreciated. His unranked-for-now team strolled into the Hilton Coliseum last night and started punching people in the mouth and banging them over the head with 3-pointers in another road win and another upset, I guess, of a ranked team.

WVU is rolling along at 14-2 overall and 4-1 in the Big 12, and the Mountaineers, I should tell you, were first among teams receiving votes in this week’s AP poll. On Wednesday, they battled foul trouble throughout and kept the league’s best 3-point shooting team really quiet.

Iowa State entered Wednesday’s game averaging 9.9 threes a game, and were held to only two, shooting 20 percent (2-10) from beyond the arc. The Mountaineers capitalized from 3-point range, recording 12 threes on 40 percent (12-30) shooting. Caldwell, Stepney and Holmes each had three threes, while Palmer and senior guards Brooke Hampton and Jess Harlee each added a trey. Every Mountaineer that played scored.

“I thought we took them off the spot on the threes. We shot better today from the perimeter than we have for the last three or four games. When (Asya) Bussie got the ball, they had two or three people on her so it was people really stepping into their shot and getting good looks,” Carey explained. “I thought we had a good game plan coming in, and I thought our players followed it.”

Meanwhile …

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This is not gospel, but …

January 15, 2014 by Mike Casazza

… this essential site has been wrong, I think, twice this season on its projected outcomes (Virginia Tech and Purdue, I believe). And right now, the great KenPom.com predicts WVU will finish 15-16 and 10-7 7-11 (no clue what I did there to kick that one) in the Big 12 with wins at home against Baylor, Kansas State and Oklahoma and no additional wins on the road.

That’s a tough row to hoe, of course, but it’s tough to disagree, too. Imagine losing seven out of eight to end the season. That was going to be tricky anyhow because WVU’s last nine games alternate home/away. Then it’s off to the Big 12 Tournament needing wins just to get into the NIT. It’s been a long time since Mountaineers missed the postseason altogether in back-to-back seasons.

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‘Did you ever go 4-for-25?’

January 14, 2014 by Mike Casazza

Honestly, you can read or write 800 words about last night’s loss and try to explain West Virginia’s fate, one that was apparent a few minutes into the game, and circle a few things.

But the Mountaineers just shot it badly from start to finish and couldn’t use made shots to make up a really vast gap in size and athleticism.

“They killed us on the glass and drove the ball pretty much anywhere they wanted to and got the shot where they wanted pretty much every time down the court,” Staten said.

The margin of defeat was the largest for the Mountaineers this season. They trailed by double digits for the final 22:11 after not trailing by more than eight points in any game since a Dec. 5 loss to Missouri. WVU (10-7, 2-2) fell behind by 25 points in that game and came close to that against Texas when the lead was 70-49 with 6:22 to go as much of the Coliseum crowd of 8,706 started to leave.

The Mountaineers missed 21 of 25 3-point shots, including 15 in row, against the conference’s worst 3-point defense. They had only six turnovers, but didn’t quite make the most of their possessions by shooting 37.7 percent (26-for-69).

“We just didn’t make any shots,” coach Bob Huggins said. “You don’t make shots, you put your head down. You make shots, you play harder. They made shots. We didn’t make any shots.”

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WVU v. Texas: Who will leave during this game?

January 13, 2014 by Mike Casazza
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You are  looking live at a sticker designated for the folks who are to sit in the athletic director’s box for tonight’s WVU v. Texas game. And, girl, the Longhorns aren’t going to like that.

Nevertheless, they are one of the three teams WVU has beaten in Big 12 play, but this is a bigger and better team than the Mountaineers managed a pair of wins against last season. Texas beat Texas Tech Saturday and then had to travel here. The Mountaineers, who you know lost to Oklahoma State Saturday, are the benefactor of a home-home Saturday-Monday sequence, one of those scheduling favors they’re privy to this season.

And while you’re waiting for this to begin, here’s a sliver of Saturday’s halftime show. It’s no Red Panda.

From dog to blog …

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Simple question

by Mike Casazza

As Bob Huggins explains away another  close loss to a quality opponent, I ask you this: Has WVU proved enough this season or must these Mountaineers do something especially special to establish their worth?

I ask because the team is torn on this sort of thing. WVU is really, really close, but that’s not new.

“It would definitely be a confidence-booster and give us the confidence to go out there and keep beating these teams,” Harris said. “I think something people aren’t thinking about is maybe some people aren’t used to winning, aren’t used to being the guy that won the big game or the team that won the big game. Some people are scared to be great like that.

“That’s a hump we need to get over. It’s a mental thing. At the end of the day, can you be as confident as you are at the beginning of the game? In big games, are you as confident as you are in smaller games? I think that great players aren’t scared to be the winner.”

QB Ford Childress no longer enrolled at WVU

January 11, 2014 by Mike Casazza

Suspended earlier this month for the full semester, Ford Childress has decided not to enroll for the spring. I’m told there will be no Andrew Buie-like return for Childress in the fall. Enjoy!

WVU v. Oklahoma State: Swag the Coliseum

by Mike Casazza
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You are looking live at a themed T-shirt for today’s game here at the Coliseum. There’s a bunch of these in gold, too. Ought to look good on the Big 12 Network (where applicable).

It’s an aggressively coordinated effort in the student section with special game day editions of the Daily Athenaeum, as well as the appropriately colored T-shirts, found throughout.

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And in those newspaper pages? Your Jan. 11, 2014 version of the Mountaineer Musings. Stevie Clark is no longer suspended, by the way. He was indefinitely suspended for one game and played the most recent game. Admire the effort nonetheless.

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Interesting play-by-play crew today: Mitch Holthus, who is the Voice of the Kansas City Chiefs, and Bryndon Manzer, who played for the Cowboys (1991-94) and moonlights behind the mic when he’s not working in financial advising.

By the way, Kansas is crushing Kansas State and Oklahoma beat Iowa State — and the Jayhawks and Sooners are and were at home. WVU, the host today, will be all alone in first place with a win against the Cowboys. The Mountaineers are a 51/2-point underdog.

And now for the other reason we’re here: Significant socks update after the jump …

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Friday Feedback

January 10, 2014 by Mike Casazza

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, eligible for six-and-a-half years and counting. And speaking of, we’re officially in the #NoHolton zone. The NCAA finally got around to gathering and ruling on some cases and that meant telling West Virginia that junior college transfer Jonathan Holton is not eligible to play this season.

The 6-foot-7 Holton, who led all of junior college with 14.1 rebounds per game last season and would have helped the Mountaineers this season, will take a redshirt and be allowed to continue practicing with the team. He now has two seasons of eligibility remaining.

I don’t want to spend more time on this than I already have, but suffice to say it’s been a meandering and perplexing story. This is from the Oct. 24 “You’ll Never Talk Alone”:

Sorry. It’s been a long time without a proclamation. Huggins told us he doesn’t know if WVU is working for Holton’s eligibility, which seems like WVU isn’t, unless Huggins is only concerned about practice, which is conceivable.

I guess I have a distrust of things now that maybe isn’t fair. But what you see here is a guy who’s been enrolled a while and who still isn’t clear to play. And Huggins told us it’s not a first semester/second semester thing, which eliminates some possibilities for the hold up.

Gradually it became a thing that might be solved soon. Then it became a possible second semester thing. Then Huggins started to bristle the more he was asked about it, no doubt a combination of the persistent inquiries and the NCAA’s pace. Then last week Holton was all set to travel because WVU was under the impression the NCAA would rule and approve in time for the flight to Texas and the TCU/Texas Tech trip. And if Holton couldn’t play that Saturday, then surely this Saturday.

Whoops.

This thing never made sense beyond what seemed obvious. Oftentimes that’s correct. No one has ever explained this to us, because it’s not permissible, and maybe it was never even clear to them, but I have to think WVU was rebuffed initially and then sought a waiver and completed all of the requisite tasks to get Holton eligible.

And now a lot of people want to scream and cry about the NCAA screwing WVU. But the feeling I’ve always received is that this isn’t that. It’s not a NCAA thing. It’s not a WVU thing. It’s not even a Holton thing. He tried to graduate from junior college in a year. It takes a lot of people two years. You can do it, but remember Holton was also expelled from Rhode Island mid-semester and that complicated how credit hours and courses were treated and transferred.

In short, this is not a subjective situation. The rules are there and they’re applied. That WVU (maybe) received an opportunity to pursue a waiver doesn’t mean much. It certainly doesn’t guarantee a decision will be overturned. It short, it’s a form of objection and it can always be overruled.

Silver lining: WVU is in a good groove. Holton has two full seasons remaining. He would have played just a half of this season and probably needed, what, three games, two weeks, to get himself in order. And WVU’s good groove would have been interrupted for a like period of time.

I don’t know, I guess that’s shallow, but that’s also probably the depth of the situation, too.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, have a plan.

glibglub said:

But is he allowed to have sandwiches?

And we’re off. We’ll finish where we started, honest.

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